Pinch and Patch, Gull and Grim,
Go you together,
For you can change your shapes
Like to the weather. 
Sib and Tib, Lick and Lull,
You all have tricks, too;
Little Tom Thumb that pipes
Shall go betwixt you. 
Tom, tickle up thy pipes
Till they be weary: 
I will laugh, ho, ho, hoh!
And make me merry. 
Make a ring on this grass
With your quick measures: 
Tom shall play, I will sing
For all your pleasures. 
The moon shines fair and bright,
And the owl hollos,
Mortals now take their rests
Upon their pillows: 
The bat’s abroad likewise,
And the night-raven,
Which doth use for to call
Men to Death’s haven. 
Now the mice peep abroad,
And the cats take them,
Now do young wenches sleep,
Till their dreams wake them. 
Make a ring on the grass
With your quick measures: 
Tom shall play, I will sing
For all your pleasures.

Thus danced they a good space:  at last they left and sat down upon the grass; and to requite Robin Good-fellow’s kindness, they promised to tell to him all the exploits that they were accustomed to do:  Robin thanked them and listened to them, and one began to tell his tricks in this manner.

THE TRICKS OF THE FAIRY CALLED PINCH

“After that we have danced in this manner as you have beheld, I, that am called Pinch, do go about from house to house:  sometimes I find the doors of the house open; that negligent servant that left them so, I do so nip him or her, that with my pinches their bodies are as many colours as a mackerel’s back.  Then take I them, and lay I them in the door, naked or unnaked I care not whether:  there they lie, many times till broad day, ere they waken; and many times, against their wills, they show some parts about them, that they would not have openly seen.

“Sometimes I find a slut sleeping in the chimney-corner, when she should be washing of her dishes, or doing something else which she hath left undone:  her I pinch about the arms, for not laying her arms to her labour.  Some I find in their bed snorting and sleeping, and their houses lying as clean as a nasty dog’s kennel; in one corner bones, in another egg-shells, behind the door a heap of dust, the dishes under feet, and the cat in the cupboard:  all these sluttish tricks I do reward with blue legs, and blue arms.  I find some slovens too, as well as sluts:  they pay for their beastliness too, as well as the women-kind; for if they uncase a sloven and not untie their points, I so pay their arms that they cannot sometimes untie them, if they would.  Those that leave foul shoes, or go into their beds with their stockings on, I use them as I did the former, and never leave them till they have left their beastliness.

  But to the good I do no harm,
  But cover them and keep them warm: 
  Sluts and slovens I do pinch,
  And make them in their beds to winch
  This is my practice, and my trade;
  Many have I cleanly made.”